


Boldly Go (The Spork Paradigm)

by Kyn_Moonlight (Kyn_Moonligjt)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Fandom Allusions & Cliches & References, Genius Jeannie McKay Miller, M/M, Meta, Sibling Bonding, Vignette, meddling little sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22472188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyn_Moonligjt/pseuds/Kyn_Moonlight
Summary: Posting some of my older fics that were previously on now-inactive archives.Rodney doesn't think he has a chance at more with John Sheppard. Jeannie thinks he does. He points out her misconception with Star Trek references. She corrects him with Star Trek fanfiction references.John and Madison play Legos.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock, Rodney McKay & Jeannie Miller, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Comments: 10
Kudos: 107





	Boldly Go (The Spork Paradigm)

Rodney leans in the doorway – Jeannie’s kitchen doorway – drinking his coffee. Colonel Sheppard is sitting on the living room floor helping Madison build a Lego castle. John, he supposes he should say, not ‘Colonel’, when he’s laughing and playing like the 8-year-old he’s helping, but the empty space in Rodney’s chest aches when he lets himself think of Sheppard by his first name.

Jeannie joins him momentarily with her own coffee, (decaf! with raw sugar and soymilk! Seriously, were they really related?) nudging him with her elbow while following his gaze. “So… John Sheppard.”

“What about him?”

“Mer!” Jeannie pushes him a little harder with her shoulder, sloshing, and very nearly spilling, his coffee.

“Hey!” he protests.

Sheppard glances up at the sound and gives them a brilliant smile, his eyes immediately meeting Rodney’s. Rodney waves a vague ‘nothing to worry about’ gesture at him and he returns to stacking little plastic blocks.

“You and John?” Jeannie asks him, voice low and conspiratorial. When he looks at her in blank confusion, she sighs and rolls her eyes as if he’s the one being stupid, then pulls him back towards the kitchen and relatively more privacy. “Don’t give me that, Meredith Rodney McKay! You keep looking at him like he’s the Nobel Prize you’ve wanted since you were in grade six”

“Four,” he corrects automatically, then at her continuing glare, he folds in the hopeless defeat reserved for meddling little sisters everywhere (and Teyla when she’s being earnestly concerned, which is virtually the same thing). “I… Yes, fine, alright? And even less likely, and that’s saying something, considering how many years it’s been since I’ve been able to publish anything that’s anywhere near as impressive and groundbreaking as I could be writing. Though if the program is ever declassified in my lifetime…” He pauses, eventually, when she lays her hand on his wrist, in a very Teyla-like gesture of … consolation? Support?

“Mer. He looks at you the same way.”

“Sheppard?” He snorts disbelief. “He can’t – he wouldn’t want… He’s like the Captain Kirk of the Pegasus galaxy! He’ll flirt with anything that moves and have sex with anything that doesn’t move fast enough.”

“Yes, true, Jim Kirk could lay on the charm with diplomats and potential allies. Kind of like someone else we know? But only till his scientist seduced him with friendship and chess, with his unfailing loyalty and y’know, looking all smart and hot in science-blue.”

“Oh, don’t tell me, you actually read those kind of stories, where Kirk is screwing Spock?”

“Well, it’s usually the other way around,” she murmurs almost absently, making Rodney’s eyes widen just a bit.

Rodney scowls and leans over to peer into her mug. “Does soymilk turn psychotropic when it goes bad?”

Jeannie sighs, shaking her head then drags him (by the non-coffee arm, thank you) over to her computer. “You remember enough of Star Trek canon to know that Vulcans were touch-telepaths and just touching fingertips was pretty much the equivalent of kissing?” She quickly types in as many passwords as she usually needs when she accesses her classified SGC work and after a few seconds of scrolling through links, sets a video playing. “Just, well, watch.”

He looks suspiciously at her and her potentially halucino-soy contaminated coffee, but she just points him at the screen. On it there are clips of Star Trek from the old original series and movies interspersed with some from the newest movie, compiled to a romantic pop song. It’s all Kirk and Spock exchanging intense looks, worried when the other is injured or in danger, relieved when they’re OK.

“There’s a Vulcan word that’s actually canon,” Jeannie says over the music. “ _T’hy’la_ . According to Rodenberry’s own explanation it means friend, brother and _lover_.”

On the laptop screen the scenes have changed to Spock and Kirk supporting each other physically and a lot of little clips of their hands touching, again and again. “Shield-mates,” she says softly, looking back at the video where Spock lays in sick bay with his hand held tight in both of Jim’s. “ _Bond_ mates.”

Closing the window when the song is over, Jeannie stands up. “You know where I’ve seen those looks before?” She points from the screen, to his eyes, toward the living room and back to him.

“But he…”

Jeannie cuts him off as only she can. “Do you really believe John is sleeping around with strangers when he can barely stand having the people he knows best touching him? Except for you. Do _they_ get the smile that goes all the way to his eyes, or the crazy, playful back and forth dialog you two have?”

“Jeannie,” he sighs.

“Mer. You love him don’t you?” He doesn’t answer, but apparently even silent, Rodney says more than anyone else. She gives him a none-too-gentle shove toward the living room. “Tell him.”

“Guys don’t go around talking about feelings! Especially Sheppard. Seriously, it’s like he’s the one that’s Vulcan.”

“Then you get to be the Jim Kirk in that instance. Jim let Spock know he was welcome in his life without pushing the limits of his emotional control. He accepted his obtuse, emotionally repressed gestures as the shy, alien courtship they were. He s _howed_ him that he cared. Let him know by his actions that he knew Spock cared about him in return.” She breaks off with a little smirk, pointing at John. “Boldly go.”

After glaring at each other for several seconds, Rodney rolls his eyes and turns away. He wanders into the living room, and Madison meets him halfway, bouncing and pulling on his arm. “Come look what we made Uncle Mer!”

John smiles up at him – all the way to his eyes, bright and warm – when he gets closer, then grabs Rodney’s hand and pulls him down to sit beside him on the floor.

The ‘castle’ is flat around the edges in six irregular-length arms with a tall central tower, and it takes John a whole second to let go of Rodney’s hand when he doesn’t pull it back immediately.

“Oh, I can’t believe you! Does the word ‘classified’ have no meaning to you?”

“It’s a space castle, Uncle Mer!” Madison tells him, “An’ a handsome prince lives there and flies space ships and does really smart _science_.”

Rodney’s just opening his mouth to say something properly scathing, when Sheppard shoulder checks him – hard – and swoops a little yellow Lego shape (and, wait, was that a puddlejumper? that’s all kinds of awesome!) past his face. “Space ships, Uncle Mer!” John says teasingly, “and science.”

“ _Really_ _smart_ science,” he corrects.

“Help us finish the central tower?”

“Fine,” Rodney grumbles, though his exasperation is only a show to cover his delight.

John’s close presence warms more than just the surface skin he touches. In the kitchen doorway, Jeannie smiles to herself and nods.

\--


End file.
